Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for augmented reality.
Description of the Prior Art
Recent advances in the capabilities of videogame consoles such as the Sony® Playstation 3® console (PS3®) and other personal computers, coupled with the ubiquity of peripheral devices such as webcams and other cameras such as the Sony EyeToy® and PlayStation Eye®, have popularised the use of augmented reality.
Augmented reality, also known as mixed reality, takes a live video input and superposes computer graphics over it to enable a user to interact with an application (typically a game) though hand gesture, facial expression and/or body movement, rather than or in addition to more conventional inputs such as a mouse, keyboard or joypad.
For example, a virtual augmentation of a captured video image may comprise an augmentation image layer, comprising in turn one or more virtual entities. This layer is superposed on the captured video image, thereby combining real and virtual features. In addition, the virtual augmentation may comprise input regions on the augmented image, allowing a user to interact with the image. Typically these inputs are correlated with all or part of one or more virtual entities, but can be correlated with an element of the captured video image, for example using object recognition.
An example of such augmented reality is the well-known EyePet® game, where a user interacts with a virtual pet by stroking it, or controlling virtual objects using a so-called fiduciary marker (a hand-held card with a high contrast pattern) or a Playstation Move® controller, which the PS3 can track using the EyeToy, and replace with a further virtual object on-screen. See for example http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=ORYSSQZTzbE.
However, it is desirable to improve further upon this interaction with virtual entities.